Despite the first quarter of 2014 being “nothing to brag about”, this year will be a “watershed” for the tablet market, with the installed base for Android overtaking iOS for the first time, according to ABI Research.

Although the first quarter saw a 30 per cent decline in unit shipments, the tablet market will resume growth over the rest of the year, with branded OEM shipments exceeding 200 million for the twelve months.

Apple will remain the leading brand for tablets, but Samsung “continues to close the gap” in second – and these two could account for more than 70 per cent of the global tablet market in 2014.

“Looking back over the past three years of the tablet boom, the leading vendor order has remained largely unchanged. Lenovo is the most obvious standout as it has executed tablet strategy well both in China and abroad,” Jeff Orr, senior practice director at ABI, said.

ABI also noted that “Intel aims to make a large splash during 2014”, with a projected 40 million devices powered by its processors. A “significant portion” is likely to come from smaller manufacturers in China and Taiwan, which are developing next-generation Android tablets for the second half of the year.